Michigan State University is planning to resume classes next semester at Berkey Hall, one of the sites of February’s mass shooting. But many students want the university to reconsider.
The building, which was closed immediately following the shooting, reopened this past fall to faculty and staff with offices there. University officials intend to resume classes at Berkey Hall on campus in the spring.
Taylor Greeson is a senior at MSU who spent many hours in Berkey Hall. She told the school’s Board of Trustees last week that since the shooting, she no longer feels safe there.
"Nowadays I spend just as much time, if not more, avoiding that building," said Greeson. "I don't see that building as a place where I met some of my closest friends. I see that as a building they barricaded themselves in."
Greeson criticized MSU for reopening the building less than a year after the Feb. 13 attack left three students dead and injured five others. Two of the students, Arielle Anderson and Alexandria Verner, were fatally shot in a Berkey Hall classroom.
“They want to put up a few walls add locks that should have been there to begin with and go back to life as if nothing ever happened,” said Greeson.
A group of students is demanding MSU keep Berkey Hall closed to classes or offer a remote option for courses at the building.
Students Demand Action at MSU, a gun violence prevention organization, conducted a survey on whether the hall should be reopened. The survey received close to 600 student responses, with more than 77% saying classes should not return there in the spring.
“Students are still healing, and don't feel quite as safe going into a building where less than a year ago, people and peers our age were murdered,” said Addison Collatz, an MSU senior with Students Demand Action.
A statement from an MSU spokesperson said the school will offer wellness resources and support when Berkey Hall reopens in January.
“Following thoughtful conversations last spring involving students, faculty, staff and trauma experts, the overwhelming majority expressed a desire to reopen Berkey Hall using a phased approach," the statement reads. "We know the healing process is not linear and that each person will heal at their own pace and in their own way."
